Jane Reads: Southwest of Love and Murder by Brenda Whiteside | Blog Tour with Review, Excerpt, and Giveaway

Monday, February 16, 2015

Southwest of Love and Murder by Brenda Whiteside | Blog Tour with Review, Excerpt, and Giveaway

The Blurb

Writing murder mysteries is all in a day's work until an obsessed fan brings Phoebe's stories to life.

Mystery writer, Phoebe Anderson, owes her success to killing her first husband on paper seventeen years earlier. Now, someone has actually done it. When she decides to take a few days away on the ranch of her best friend’s brother-in-law, she doesn’t expect romance to find her... or murder to follow her.

Mason Meadowlark is happy with his wild cowboy ways, avoiding love since the death of his baby and the end of his marriage twenty years ago. When Phoebe shows up, he fights to control his emotions, but soon wonders if she just might be worth the risk of opening his heart again.

With an obsessed fan close on her heels, Phoebe is thrown into her own murder mystery… and the next target on his list is Mason.

Southwest of Love and Murder by Brenda Whiteside
Series: Love and Murder, #2
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: December 19, 2014
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Paperback: 300 pages
ISBN-10: 162830748X
ISBN-13: 978-1628307481
eBook File Size: 414 KB
ASIN: B00QQPMIMQ
Amazon | Nook | Wild Rose Press | Goodreads

The Excerpt

Phoebe shuddered and stilled.

Like the aftershocks of an earthquake, trembling overtook her body. Her knees wobbled, but Mason caught her before she collapsed.

“What’s wrong?” He hugged her briefly then brought his face even with hers. “Phoebe, tell me. Why are you shaking? What’s happened?”

“Oh my God, Mason.” She spread her hands on his chest and glanced back at the bathroom. “Tell someone to call an ambulance. Hurry!”

He took a step toward the ladies’ room, but she grabbed his shirtfront. “No!” She peered around him and shouted. “Someone call nine one one.”

Mason touched his pocket. “My cell’s in the truck.” He grabbed the shoulder of a male customer, the closest person to them. “You got a cell on you?”

The man nodded and pulled a phone from his pocket.

“Call nine one one right now. There’s been…” His face questioned her.

“Someone’s badly hurt in the bathroom. Oh hell, hurry!” She thumped her palms against his chest.

The man pulled out his cell as he raced into the ladies’ room.

Phoebe wrapped her arms around Mason, tipped her chin upward, and found the words. “It’s that waitress, Mason. Carla.”

His expression went blank, from concern for her to no comprehension.

“There’s so much blood.” She stifled a gag, the sweet, copper penny reek still heavy in her nostrils. “Her throat.” A shudder rippled the length of her body. “I think she’s dead.”

The Review

I just read a really good book, y'all! Let me tell you a little about it.

Southwest of Love and Murder, by Brenda Whiteside, is a romantic suspense novel about Phoebe, a suspense novelist who, in the guise of doing some research on ranching for her next book, is looking for romance by

Getting away from the city, spending time on a ranch with a handsome — no, a damned sexy cowboy....

Phoebe's romantic research with her cowboy Mason is going well (except he prefers the term rancher), until she realizes that she has been followed by a stalker from the city to the country. The book's point of view alternates between Phoebe, Mason, and her stalker (whose identity is not revealed to the reader, until Phoebe becomes aware that she is being stalked). At this point, the book transitions from a romance with mystery and just a touch of suspense, to a suspenseful mystery with a side of romance.

No matter whether the romance or the suspense is predominating at the moment, the result is a very good read. I recommend this one, y'all — if you like romance, and suspense, I think you'll really like Southwest of Love and Murder.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of Southwest of Love and Murder from the author

and Goddess Fish Book Tours, in exchange for an honest opinion of the book.

The Author

About Brenda Whiteside

Brenda spends most of her time writing stories of discovery and love entangled with suspense. The rest of her time is spent tending vegetables on the small family farm she shares with her husband, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Together, they’ve embraced an age-old lifestyle that has been mostly lost in the United States — multiple generations living under one roof, who share the workload, follow their individual dreams and reap the benefits of combined talents.
Although she didn’t start out to write romance, she’s found all good stories involve complicated human relationships. She’s also found no matter a person’s age, a new discovery is right around every corner. Whether humorous or serious, straight contemporary or suspense, all her books revolve around those two facts.

Visit her on the web at these locations: